TAPping into argumentation: Developments in the application of Toulmin's Argument Pattern for studying science discourse

Abstract This paper reports some methodological approaches to the analysis of argumentation discourse developed as part of the two‐and‐a‐half year project titled “Enhancing the Quality of Argument in School Scienc'' supported by the Economic and Social Research Council in the United Kingdom. In this project researchers collaborated with middle‐school science teachers to develop models of instructional activities in an effort to make argumentation a component of instruction. We begin the paper with a brief theoretical justification for why we consider argumentation to be of significance to science education. We then contextualize the use of Toulmin's Argument Pattern in the study of argumentation discourse and…